American Gamelan Seeks Players

Seminal American gamelan Other Music is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its inception with a reunion performance to be presented this June in conjunction with the Just Intonation Network's 20th Anniversary concert series.

In Other Music's newest incarnation, founding members will be joined by additional instrumentalists to perform world premieres as well as work from its repertoire.

Musicians interested in playing with Other Music should contact the group at the email address or phone number listed below. Previous gamelan experience is desirable but not essential (solid musical skills, however, are). Rehearsals will be held at Other Music's world headquarters in downtown San Francisco and are guaranteed to be quite a lot of fun.

Originally active from 1975 to 1984, Other Music created a complex music synthesizing elements from a wide variety of historical, world-music and popular sources. Among the group's influences are the gamelan of Java and Bali, the intonational theories of Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, European modal polyphony and the American experimental tradition. The resulting music is tonal in the broadest sense, texturally rich, and rhythmically intricate.

As in Indonesian gamelan, the foundation of Other Music's ensemble consists of metallophones. Composed of aluminum bars mounted over tunable resonators, these instruments span a range of five octaves (C to c'''') divided among four registers: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Other hand-built instruments include a two-octave marimba, tubular brass chimes, and vertical flutes. Designed and constructed by group members, the gamelan is tuned to a just scale of fourteen unequal steps per octave and is augmented by traditional flexible-pitched or retuned wind, string, electric and electronic instruments, and a varied battery of drums.

A few vintage plaudits:

"Other Music is one among a handful of ensembles who have made innovation their specialty."
--Barbara Benary, Ear East

"The music? Amazing. Absolutely amazing."
--Armand Sarbeau, Manifest

"They bring a new meaning to the terms tone and colouring ... dramatic drumming and plenty of tension squeezed from the aluminum bars."
--Trev Faull, Outlet

"Other Music ... is a significant force in the burgeoning experimental music scene in the U.S.A."
--Kevin Shelton, Surface Noise

contact: Carola Anderson, (415) 699-0008, carola@justintonation.net
(do not reply to the tuning list)

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David B. Doty dbd@justintonation.net
Just Intonation Network http://www.justintonation.net
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